standing like a statue at my kitchen island that he stopped talking.
“Belle?” He frowned, setting the glasses down on the counter before he made his way toward me. “You alright?”
“No.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked, instantly taking me into his arms.
I shimmied out of them, crossing my arms over my chest, instead. I hated the look on Makoa’s face when I did, but being back in his grasp had my chest tight and my heart racing the same way it had on the boat.
“Did I… did I do something wrong?”
“No,” I said quickly. “And that’s the problem.”
He arched a brow.
“Can’t you see it?” I asked, tossing my hands up before I let them slap down to my thighs. “I like you.”
His other brow joined the first in his hairline.
“Like… we’re like… dating.”
He chuckled, his tense shoulders deflating a little as he opened his arms. “Come here.”
I shook my head.
“Belle,” he insisted. “Come here. Let me hold you.”
My brows tugged together, but with him standing there like that, with those words on his lips, I had no other choice. I slipped into his arms, and when he wrapped them around me, I melted, letting out the longest sigh of my life.
“I like you, too,” he whispered. “And, as weird as it may sound to you, I assure you — it’s not something to be upset about.”
“I beg to differ.”
“Tell me why.”
“You know why.”
He kissed my hair — God, he actually kissed my hair, like they do in the movies! — and then he pulled back so he could look me in the eyes. “We’re on this ride together. Okay? And I promise to abide by the campsite rule.”
It was my turn to quirk a brow. “The what?”
“The campsite rule. You know, when you go camping, you leave your campsite in the same or better condition than when you found it. No trash, no fires left burning.” He paused when he saw the vacant look in my eyes. “Have you never been camping?”
“I have, I just can’t believe you’re comparing dating to camping.”
“Kind of the same. I mean, it’s mostly fun, but a little scary, a little dirty, a little out of our comfort zone. You know, no air conditioning, no showers.” He smiled, running the back of his knuckles along my cheek. “What I’m saying is that it’s okay to be a little freaked out. We have no idea which way this is going to go.”
My stomach somersaulted.
“Are you having fun?”
I nodded.
“So am I. And right now, I think that’s what matters. Let’s just enjoy each other, and have fun, and take it slow.” He shrugged. “And then we’ll see where it goes from there.”
“And if it goes nowhere?”
“I won’t hurt you,” he promised, and the way his golden eyes searched mine with the words made me feel stripped down to my soul. “I can’t promise much, but I can promise that.”
My throat was thick with an emotion I thought I’d never feel again, and I swallowed it down, nodding over and over before I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed those stupid, perfect lips of his.
Makoa held me, strong and steady, kissing me with all the reverence his words had in the moments before. His hands found my face, framing it, tugging my hair just enough to lift my chin for better access.
My hands pressed into his chest, feeling the hard muscles there and groaning as I dragged my fingertips down over every mountain and valley of his abdomen. His board shorts were still a little damp from our dip in the lake earlier, but one firm grasp revealed his erection under them, and I gasped into his mouth, panting with need.
And that’s exactly what it was.
Need.
I needed him to kiss me. I needed to touch him and be touched by him. I needed to turn off the words, turn off my brain, to lose myself in everything that he was physically.
My fingers slipped between the band of his shorts and his skin, and I tugged, guiding him backward and down the hall toward my bedroom with our lips still fused together.
“Belle,” he warned, but it was a husky warning, one laced with a desire powerful enough to undo his restraint.
I kicked my bedroom door open with one foot, sliding my hands up his abdomen and under his shirt until he had no choice but to lift his arms and let me take it off.
“Don’t overthink this,” I whispered, stripping my cover-up off. With one quick pull of the string